The Comp Is Done. What's Next?

After months of comp prep = peaking, specificity in competition lifts, potentially dieting/making weight and managing fatigue (both physical, and the mental load of the prep)… you don't necessarily need to jump straight into another competition prep. We don’t want to spend the entire year preparing for your next competition.

The time between competitions is where you build your technique and capacities. This the best thing you can do for your next total is spend some time becoming a bigger, stronger, better-conditioned athlete.

First step: Recovery

Before we talk about building anything, talk about actually recovering from the competition block. This doesn't necessarily mean taking weeks completely off.

It just means: reducing volume & intensity, stepping away from competition-specific work, maybe having a week just doing movements you enjoy and giving your body and brain a break from constantly performing.

Then: We build your foundations

Competition training tends to become increasingly specific which is appropriate when we're trying to maximise performance. But the off-season gives you an opportunity to address the things that get pushed aside during a peak - technique, muscle and strength building, conditioning and potential weak points (technical or mobility or even strength related)!

Getting jacked!

During a competition prep, your training naturally becomes more specific as we spend time practising the competition lifts, increasing intensity and decreasing volume. That's all completely appropriate when the goal is to maximise performance on competition day and this doesnt (!!!) mean we aren't building muscle, but it isnt the optimal training stimulus for this outcome.

But now we have a lovely opportunity to put some of that volume back in and build the tissues that ultimately contribute to your strength.

There isn't a magic number of sets that will make everyone grow, but hypertrophy generally requires enough weekly training volume to provide an adequate stimulus. A useful starting point for many people is somewhere around 10–20 challenging sets per muscle group per week, with rep ranges around the 8–20 mark (those who have been coached by me know I LOVE some high volume 20 reps. With most of this work being around 2–4 reps in reserve (RIR) or 7-8 RPE. And yes, there can be a place for failure sets and drop sets, particularly on exercises where the fatigue cost is relatively low.

Getting strong AF!

Strength isn't just about practising heavy singles. You need the physical capacity to produce force, tolerate training volume, and recover from that training. We can also take advantage of less specificity by building strength in different squat variations, or pulling strength with different deadlift or pulling variations, shoulders and back with presses, rows and accessories.

Again I'd want to see you doing an exercise or variation that you are focusing on building strength in, at least 2x per week in this phase of training. Using volume parameters around the 10 sets per week, for reps of between 1-10.

Aaaaand fitness!

Good conditioning can help you tolerate higher training volumes, recover between efforts and generally make training feel less brutally exhausting, and you'll become more technically efficient under fatigue.

For a strength athlete, conditioning outside of the gym can be as simple as ensuring you're getting your steps in each day. In the gym, we are timing our rest periods, and hitting some higher volumes - yep, that means triples!

Also, don't forget the stuff outside of the gym!

If we're serious about building muscle, strength and fitness, we need to talk about nutrition, sleep and recovery too.

You can't consistently train hard, recover well and build significant amounts of muscle without giving your body enough energy and nutrients to do it. For many people, this means spending some time in a calorie surplus, or at a minimum, maintenance. Ensuring you are getting in your protein (A useful general target for people trying to build muscle is around 1.6–2.2 g/kg/day) and carbs, as well as fruit and vegetables, and fats. And you've heard it all before but - Aim for around 7–9 hours of quality sleep, getting outside into the sun, moving throughout the day.

It's time to build. Let's goooooo!

Not sure how to structure your own off-season? Our coaches can build a plan around your goals, whether that's packing on muscle, building strength, or just moving better before your next comp. (Book a free intro session)